Search form

Search form

NBCUniversal has ceded its spot in the Digital Content NewFront to CBS Interactive in favor of holding its own event. NBCU's "Digital.Amplified." event on April 24, with digital chief Lauren Zalaznick and sales chief Linda Yaccarino as co-hosts, will be more social gathering than presentation, Sam Thielman writes.

Related Summaries

NBCUniversal this year will hold a combined upfront for its 17 cable networks, including USA, Bravo, Sprout and Esquire Network. The event, which will also include information about online video, has been scheduled for May 15 -- the final day of the 2014-2015 upfront week -- in New York. "In this world of continued fragmentation, aggregation and scale mean everything," said Linda Yaccarino, president for NBCUniversal advertising sales. "It made sense to put the scale of this cable portfolio in front of our clients and show how our portfolio strategy will drive sales for their products."

Lauren Zalaznick, a longtime NBCUniversal executive who is credited with transforming Bravo into a top-rated network for upscale audiences, is exiting the company. Zalaznick, who took the reins of NBCU's digital properties in January as part of a reorganization, will remain with the company during an unspecified transition period, and then become a consultant "on digital media content and technology marketplace trends."

NBCUniversal is looking to acquire multichannel YouTube networks that appeal to female audiences, as well as those catering to other demographic groups, according to Lori Conkling, NBCU's executive vice president of strategy and business development. "We are looking across the spectrum to see which [online networks] align with verticals that are important to us," Conkling said at an industry event in New York.

NBCUniversal sales chief Linda Yaccarino says she has assembled a "dream team" that will take a unique approach to ad sales by offering potential clients placements across NBCU's broadcast, cable and digital assets. "The way we will come to market is really agnostic as to whether it's broadcast, cable or digital, and that's what our customers are telling us they want," Yaccarino said. "We have all this stuff, so it's almost limitless how we can creatively stitch together our content. And there's an amplification of the content when the various elements are aligned. They're stronger together."

Bonnie Hammer, the veteran executive in charge of USA Network and other NBCUniversal cable channels, will now run of all of NBCU's cable entertainment networks. Under the change, Hammer will oversee Bravo and other properties formerly helmed by Lauren Zalaznick, who will now lead development of digital entertainment. NBCU also has tapped Joe Uva, the ex-CEO of Univision, to lead its Telemundo network.